


Beyond the Ocean

by BlueFloyd



Category: Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Genre: Gen, Sightseeing, Worldbuilding, architecture, kayaking in the House between the worlds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:15:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 12,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27177088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueFloyd/pseuds/BlueFloyd
Summary: A few years after the events told inPiranesi, with Matthew nowhere to be found, Sarah Raphael goes through a burnout and decides to take some time off in the House. More specifically, she decides to find out what is on the other side of the Ocean.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 10





	1. Chapter 1

It was some years after Matthew had disappeared again. I was exhausted and burnt out. My workload at the police station kept getting bigger each year, with our budgets cut, retired officers not being replaced and the general franticness of the world seemingly increasing neverendlessly. I woke up one day and found myself incapable to go to work. The very idea of going to the station was enough to bring me to the verge of tears. I sat on my bed for a long time. Just when my shift was about to start, I called in to say that I was sick. I think the lieutenant understood what I was going through better than me. She told me not to worry about the work, that they had it covered.

"Sarah, you did a shitton of overtime this year, and you took next to zero days off. Don't you dare coming back in without having seen a doctor and without actually resting. Sleep, eat actual meals for once instead of these godawful protein slurpees of yours, go see some friends. No coming near the station for the next week at the very least!"

After she hang up, I went back to bed. It was 8:30, I could hear the city moving around me, people getting ready for their day. I felt guilty for not being up to the task, but I finally managed to fell asleep again. When I woke up, it was 11:45 and the city was quieter. I went to the kitchen, got some coffee going, watched some dust twirl around in a ray of sun. I called my doctor and managed to get an appointment for the very same day, a small miracle these days. The afternoon rushed by, I sat in my couch with a book without reading it, my thoughts going round in my head, oscillating with my unability to work and the guilt of not being there for my co-officers.

The medical appointment put a stop to all this. After letting me explain the situation, Dr. Mann told me that this was a textbook burnout and put me on sick leave for three weeks. She basically told me the same thing than the lieutenant had told me earlier, but with the moral authority of a physician. I was not to think of work for the following weeks. Going to see some friends or family would be a great idea. Keeping myself busy with non-related tasks, getting a lot of sleep and solid meals. All fine and well but it was November in the UK. Not the best time to be unoccupied. My parents had been dead for some time, and I had no friends that weren't work colleagues since Matthew had disappeared. Staying around the house all day did not attract me in the slightest. But there was some other place I could go to. The House.

I had kept going to the House after I brought back Matthew. Sometimes with him, sometimes alone. I liked the grandeur of the Halls and the calm of the whole place. I kept my visit short at the beginning to avoid the disorientation and memory losses that came with too much time spent there. But we had done some experiments with Matthew and discovered that meditation and the rememoring of one's identity - either told by a companion or simply read on a piece of paper - at the beginning and the end of each day was efficient enough to keep remembering who one was. I had stopped going to the House a few years back. When Matthew had disappeared I went to look for him there, obviously, but was unable to find him this time. I had kept going, to look for him but also just to be there, but it was time-consuming and in the end I had let day-to-day tasks fill all of my time.

The House was the perfect place to go to cut myself from my anxiety and burnout.


	2. Chapter 2

I took out the candle and turned off the lights. Even with the years of non practice, the mantra came easily to me. I had never managed to cross without practising the ritual. Matthew did it effortlessly and took me with him on our trips together, but when I was on my ow I needed the full decorum. I shifted the tone of my voice, getting the tune to resonate in my throat. The air was suddenly salty. I stopped singing and opened my eyes. I was there, in the Minotaurs Room. I checked my phone and set an alarm 45 minutes later.

The sun was setting on the House. The shadows were growing long already, extending from the Statues and shrouding the Rooms. I walked out of the Minotaurs and into the adjacent Hall. The sound of the Ocean was stronger here. I walked to the Statue of A Boy Reaching for an Apple On the Tree. Hidden behind it was a cache of supplies we had set up with Matthew. I slided between the Statue and the Wall. The brown package was still there, seemingly undisturbed since my last visit. I had crossed over without any preparation. I did not plan to stay long today, but I still needed an essential item : a map of the adjacent Halls. I had been there so many times than even now I thought I could easily find my way around. But I always used extra caution with the House. I retrieved one of the copies of the map, and discovered there was also some spare chalk in the package. I took that as well. I went back to the Minotaurs Room and traced two symbols, one on the floor and one at eye level. I walked the length of the Hall until I reached a Staircase. One chalk mark to indicate where I was coming from, one on the first step, one on the last step.

The descent had been easy, but the climb back up would take a toll. Staircases were always a nuisance. But I had a clear idea of where I wanted to go, and I needed to go down at some point, so I might as well do it as soon as possible. I oriented myself and started walking. The sun was shining red on the Statues. Woman Tying Her Hair, Boy Licking Honey From His Fingers, Vulture Eating A Goat… Old figures from a distant past. I stopped a few seconds in front of a personal favorite. Man Trying to Open An Oyster. The subject was domestic, a man caught in an everyday task. The sun bathed him, making it as if he was seated in front of a fire.

I resumed walking. I passed a Door into another Hall (one more chalk mark) then another (a mark again). There I was. The marble floor was covered by a slight layer of seawater. I move forward slowly, careful not to lose my footing on the slippery stone. a few meters ahead, the floor had given way, and the Ocean was there, at least a level deep, potentially much more. Waves were crashing on the jagged break in the floor, and the tide ebbed and flowed between my feet. There were algae on the Statues, proving that the Ocean could rise up and fill the whole hall. I was lucky in my timing, the tide was in the perfect position : low enough to give me access to the Hall, high enough that actual waves crashed on the shore and I could get a sense of the sheer mass of the Water. I was suddenly startled by a cry: a seagull was perched on the head of one of the closest Statues and I hadn't noticed it. More cries echoed. Seagulls took off their perchs and starting flying in lazy circles over the Ocean. From time to time one plunged and seized a fish, before resuming its slow circling.

The sound of the waves crashing on the marble shore, the light of the sun on the water and the seagulls and the Statues, the scent of salt and algae and marble dust. I felt something loosen in me. Yes. This was where I needed to be, what I needed to experience right now. The House could give me the peace I so badly needed. A trill from my phone got me out of my daydreaming. 45 minutes had passed already. I needed to go back. I shot one last look to the ballet of the seagulls, and I turned away to go back to the Minotaurs Room.

The House had darkened considerably. I turned the flashlight on my phone on, cursing myself for not having the reflex to bring a headlight. I came back to the Staircase, checked it was the one bearing my chalk mark, and started climbing it. The Stairs were waist-high. It wasn't complicated, but it was exhausting. Finally I reached the top. I retraced my step to the Minotaurs Room, and went into the passageway. Suddenly the world shifted, and I was back in my living room. I snuffed the candle, and collapsed in my sofa. I hadn't realized it, but I had missed the House. And especially the Ocean. Matthew had never been particularly interested into the Ocean. The Statues were the most interesting feature of the House for him. But statues, however allegoric, belonged in a house. An ocean, on the other hand, did very much not. Real-world oceans were already impressive for me ; but the House Ocean topped them all.

I knew what I wanted to do during the following weeks : I wanted to cross the Ocean.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, I woke up before my alarm went off. I had had trouble finding sleep the previous night, thinking of what I planned to do, but when morning came I realized I had no trouble at all getting up. The prospect of undertaking this adventure was electrifying.

I wanted to take the day to think of everything I needed. I would gather supplies, review procedures, bring my stuff to the House, sleep one last time in my bed, and then head out to the Ocean tomorrow morning. The most important part was obviously the boat. The one Ketterley had brought all these years ago was supposedly still there. Matthew had shown me where he had stored it, but I had to check its state. I also wanted to bring a secondary boat, something like an inflatable zodiac that I could use to store supplies and as a precaution should the kayak have a problem.

Matthew had never used the kayak. He hadn't used any means of transport other than his feet inside the House. I had suggested bringing bicycles there to explore faster, but he had explained that the House was meant to be explored unassisted. Well, maybe I wasn't the Most Beloved Child of the House, but still I had some practical sense and I wasn't about to try to swim across an uncharted Ocean. So, the kayak, a secondary boat, three weeks worth of provision, warm and waterproof clothes, a tent, a duffel bag, my camera. A compass of course, a can of fluorescent paint to mark my way.

Would one week of navigation be enough to cross the Ocean? I had no idea. We had walked along with Matthew, and he had done it without me a longer time. A week on foot hadn't been enough to notice a shift in the direction of the coastline. But we had no idea of its shape. Maybe it was very narrow. Maybe it was gigantic. I would have to see for myself. If one week wasn't enough I'll have to turn around, it would make for 2 weeks on the water, a nice expedition already.

I had spent the day in camping stores and I thought I had everything I needed.I had to carry everything across. That was a pain in the ass. Ketterley seemed to have been able to bring a significant amount of goods with him when he crossed, given the kayak. Matthew could too and he carried thing for me when we crossed together (he didn't see the interest to bring things that he would use himself, since "The House would provide"). I had never been able to bring more than my own clothes and the content of my pockets. I could cheat by carrying a slim backpack below my sweater, but it had a small capacity. It took me seven crossing to get everything across, except the tent, the boat, the duffel bag and a big backpack. I tried several time to bring them only to realise once in the House that they had stayed in my apartment. I finally succedeed by wrapping myself around each item before crossing, holding them as tight as possible as if I was trying to make them part of me.

Finally I had everything I needed. I filled up the bag, brought it at the top of the Staircase I used to go down to the Ocean. I went and retrieved the Ketterley's boat in its cache. I inspected it. It was dusty, its paint was chipped, but it was in excellent shape otherwise. Good. There even was some compartments for storing things in it where I could put some stuff so everything wasn't in the zodiac in case there was a problem with it. I brought to boat to the staircase as well. I hid the boat and the bag behind the Statue of a Woman Reading A Small Book. Tomorrow morning I would have to bring everything downStairs, inflate the zodiac, and that was it. Perfect. It was still early. I sat down and practised meditation a bit. I would need to practise twice daily to retain my identity during the weeks to come, better start now. I made the void in my mind, repeating my name as a mantra "Sarah Raphael, Sarah Raphael, Sarah Raphael, Sarah Raphael, Sarah Raphael, Sarah Raphael, Sarah Raphael..." I was Sarah Raphael. What did that implied. Not from this world. Police officer. Two weeks vacation. Ability to cross between two worlds. Childhood in Kent. Too much focus on work usually. Likes progressive rock and baroque concertos. Fond of modernist architecture. Sarah Raphael. I." I reopened my eyes. That was a good start. I needed to put all this on paper too. So I could check I was not letting elements slip day after day. Some reference to the Minotaurs room would be handy as well. Ok. Time to cross back. Tomorrow would be the big day.


	4. Chapter 4

The alarm woke me at dawn. Today was the day. I went to my kitchen made some coffee. The city was quiet at this hour. I sipped my coffee, while mentally reviewing my checklist. I had printed and plastified the text about my identity last night, so I was covered in terms of mantra. I had more than enough food, warm clothes, two boats. I was as ready as I'll ever be. I filled a basin with water, got a piece of wood and two icecubes. The icecubes went on the side of the basin, the piece of wood on the side, and I propped the candle on top of all of it. The icecubes would melt, and the candle would fall in the water. I wasn't returning for two weeks, I didn't want to come back to a burned up apartment. I lit the candle, watched into the flame, and started singing the mantra.

I was in the Minotaurs Room once more. I stepped out of it and into the Hall. I walked slowly, taking the time to take in the familiar surroundings. The House was alien, but this part of it was the part I knew, the part I had went through so many times. Its Statues were comforting in their immuable poses. Hello, Statue of A Boy Reaching for an Apple On the Tree. See you in two weeks - give of take. I reached the Stair. I took the bag and the boat from behind the Statue of a Woman Reading a Small Book. I had hoped to get both of them downStairs in one trip, but it was now visible that this was far too optimistic. I managed to get bot of them down three Stairs before giving up. I left the bag and took the kayak all the way downstairs before coming back up. I took a small break on the Stair where the bag was. I closed my eyes, listened for the roar of the Ocean. I had sailed when I was younger, several weekly trips along the south coast of England with George, my mother's older brother. But that had been a long time ago, on a sailboat, with an adult taking the important decisions, and also, not in a building conjured up by magic seeping out of our world. I had done a bit of kayak on lakes but only for a few hours at once, this wouldn't be exactly comparable. I drew in a long breath. I had to stop second guessing everything. I was doing this. If it wasn't working out, I'll turn around after a day or two. But I would have tried.

I got up, got the backpack and starting going down the Stairs again. Once at the base, I picked up the Kayak and put it on the top of my head. I walked the length of the Hall until I reached the Room with the broken floor. The Tide was so that the Ocean was less than a meter down from the floor. It was the perfect time to embark. I put the kayak down, got the second boat out of the bag. It was a bukly package. I started inflating it with the footpump. Soon enough I had my second boat ready. I tied a rope to the bow. The other end went to the stern of the kayak. I lowered the zodiac in the water. Then I loaded it with the backpack, and secured it with another rope. Almost there. I put on my lifeboat, took the strapped between my legs and put it in the opening on the front. It entered with a satisfying click. I tightened the strap. All secured. I put the kayak in the water as well, and slowly got into it. There. I ajusted the kayak skirt around me to minimize the possibility that water got in. Well. This was it.

I seized the paddle. I pushed on the jagged edge on the floor, and oriented my bow to the Door leading in the next Hall. A seagull cawed. I started paddling. I rapidly reached the Door. I was now in uncharted territory. Well, maybe not quite. Matthew had maybe walked this Hall during an exceptionally low tide. But the next one, I would be the first to see. I kept on paddling. 

The day passed slowly. I wanted to go west quickly, to get far from my starting point. I soon realized that the added drag of the zodiac canceled all the hydrodynamism of the kayak. I would not race forward as planned, but rather take the scenic road. I noticed the Statues kept getting bigger. I first thought that they shifted to an oceanic theme as well, but that was actually only for a pair of Halls where I got to see the Statue of a Group of Dolphins Leaping In The Air, the Statue of Poseidon Brandishing his Trident, the Statue of Fishermen Hauling Their Fishnet... After that the Statues reverted to more generic themes, but their size kept increasing.

The Halls themselves seemed to increase in size, but I wasn't completely sure. What I could see before the Waters turned too dark seemed to indicate that the Floors were getting farther away under water, but it might have been a trick of the light.

I stopped paddling around 5:30PM. The sun was not yet too low but my arms were tired and I wanted some time to find a proper place to set camp for the night, stretching, eating, practising my mantra and recap my day. There was a large and ornate Plinth above the Door leading into the next Hall. It was high above water, but there was a sculpted Column promising an easy climb. I was no idea how high the tide would shift here, so I might as well get some security margin. I tied the boats with a good length of rope before shouldering my bag, and I started to climb. The Plinth was large enough that I could set up my tent on it and have some space on the side. I did that, and put my duffel bag inside. The Ceiling and the Upper Floors where all broken here and in the two previous Halls I had passed, but so close to the Wall, there was a piece of Ceiling still in place protecting my camp from the risks of rain.

The tent was set, the food was warming up on my butagaz, I had evening clothes on. I finally paused and took in my surroundings. I had crossed 15 Halls today. The Doors were lined up so far, so charting my course was not a problem. The Statues were getting bigger, and the Architecture was getting more ornate. No discernible theme for the Statues except for the two oceanic Halls at the beginning. The Ceilings were gone, and the setting sun had easy entry into the House. There had been no birds so far on my journey, the House had been quite lifeless, with just the roar of the ocean on the Walls as soundtrack. I ate while observing the Statue in front of me. Monk Copying a Book, I guessed. I took its picture, took a few more pictures of the Hall. If Matthew ever reappeared he would love to see them. And I wanted to document my journey for myself as well. I climbed down to the boats to wash and rinse my plate and fork into the Ocean. I went back up, jotted down my observations about the day in the notebook I had brought for this purpose, recited my mantra, checked it up against its written version and then went to bed. With all the exercise I had done during the day, I fell asleep right away.


	5. Chapter 5

The next day, I was able to tell for sur that the Halls were getting wider. The most visible change was the width of the Doors; it was now possible to have two cars crossing them at the same time. I counted the time it took me to paddle from one end to an Hall to the other. It was getting longer with each Hall. So the Rooms themselves were getting bigger. I crossed some Halls without any Statues visible. Maybe they were underwater, but it seemed strange that they had suddenly shrunk for a Hall or two. Well, the absence of Statues was Strange as well, but somehow made more sense for me.

I paused for lunch by the side of the head of a Statue. It was above water from the nose up. It represented a Boy with Horns, with a very beautiful face. It seemed to be lying in wait below water. After I finished my lunch, I paddled away from it so I could photograph it properly. I resumed paddling west. I crossed one more Hall, and as I neared the Door to the next one, I heard a tremendous noise, getting louder and louder as I was getting close. Thousands of overlapping songs, tweets and cries. I arrived in a Hall where there was no Statues, but strange geometric Platforms, all covered in birds. It was the largest number of birds I had ever seen in the House. The Platforms could have been some abstract Statues, but all the Statues I had ever seen in the House so far had been figurative. Moreover, they weren't made in the same type of marble the Statues were made of. I was not even sure the Platforms were made of marble, to be frank. The material looked like it, but something seemed off. But this was a gut feeling, I hadn't enough knowledge of mineralogy to confirm or infirm this hunch.

I stayed a bit in the Platforms Hall. My arms were tired, and it was nice to watch the birds. From time to time, a flock of them would get up, circle the room, and then land on some other platforms than the one they were coming from. The number of birds was gigantic, and the number of species as well. There was a lot of seagulls, swallows, sparrows, goldfinches and pigeons, the species usually found in the house. But there where also rarer birds. I identified pelicans, herons, and parakeets, but I was as bad as an ornithologist than as a mineralogist, and there were dozens of others species that I could not identify further than "pretty birds". I put on some earplugs to deafen the noise from the birds. I was considering resuming my paddling when it happened. Some whooping cranes that I had not spotted before started cawing, and the other birds tuned down their chirping. It wasn't silence, but it was suddenly considerably quieter. The cranes took off, a siege of maybe twenty of them. As the previous birds, they circled the room two times, then they suddenly flew in a straight line, gaining speed. They brushed against the water, regained some height, and disappeared. I had a perfect view of them and suddenly they weren't there anymore. I had seen them cross. The other birds started chirping and tweeting loudly again, as if the event was finished. I took it as my clue to leave and I paddled out of the Hall, pondering the meaning of what I had just witnessed. 


	6. Chapter 6

After the Platforms Hall, I got two days of uneventful paddling. I was setting in a routine. But the following day, everything changed. The first hours of paddling were the same as the previous day. Oceanic Halls, huge by the standards of the terrestrial ones, submerged Statues, ornate architecture, no roof. I passed four of them, and then the fifth was very different. No Statues. Wall completely straight without any ornaments, like the idea of a Room. It was very unusual but there wasn't anything to observe in details so I took a few pictures and I paddled on.

The next one was pretty much the same, but the top of the lateral Walls was angled downward. The opposite Wall was much lower than the one I had just passed through. So low, actually, that the Door had no lintel. It was just an open passage between two unconnected pieces of Wall. The one after that pursued the same trend : there was some ornery back on, but very light, some carvings on the Walls but sparse and shallow. And the Walls were still angled downward, with the back Wall very low. I could probably have seen above it if I were standing up, but down there in the kayak it still blocked my view. I paddled to it quickly.

There was no more Room after it. I was on what seemed to be open waters. I could see a shape coming out of the water on the horizon, but was unable to make out what it was from here. The Wall I had just come through was clearly curving outward. It was possible that I was in a gigantic courtyard, but on a size unlike anything I had seen in the House until then.

Several courses of action were possible. I could stop there and turn around. This was the safest option, but not a very satisfying one. I could follow the Wall on my left or on my right. It would be hard to know exactly the direction I'll be going in, but it was quite safe to do, turning around would be easy. And I could paddle in the direction of the shape I was seeing on the horizon. The problem being I had no idea how the currents and weather conditions would be here.

I checked my compass. The needle was indicating I was still going west, and it was stable. I could find my way back with it. I took a time to consider all the options, but to be fair I knew already what I wanted to do. I reached in the zodiac and found one of the spraycans. I got close to the Wall and sprayed a star on it. The shape was all right, and the lines were regular even with the unsteadiness of the boat. Not bad at all. I hadn't lost too much technique since high school. I painted the same star on the other side of the Door. Bright pink stars flanking "my" Door. I should be able to find it easily on my way back. The paint was waterproof, there shouldn't be any problem on that side. I checked that everything was in order in my boat. I drank some water, ate some dried apricots, and I started paddling toward the shape on the horizon.


	7. Chapter 7

After two hours of paddling straight in the direction on the shape on the horizon, the wall in my back started to fade out of view, slowly masked by the curve of the horizon and the water in the air. My goal had been getting slightly bigger, but I was still unable to guess what it was. Another hour of paddling seemed to bring me no more closer. It would take me more than a day to reach it. That meant sleeping in the boat. The weather was completely calm and I was certain that it would stay that way for at least a day - a House hunch as I had dubbed the feeling when Matthew had explained it to me. But I was more worried about currents drag during the night. I had brought a drift anchor, but would it be enough? Or would I wake up miles from where I had fallen asleep? Or worse, hit something and capsize during the night?

I cursed myself for not considering these risks before embarking on my journey to the mysterious shape. Well, too late anyway. I had to hope that I qualified as a Most Beloved Children in the eyes of the House, and that everything would turn out alright. Or I could turn around. It was still time. Three hours to get back to the Wall, and to safety. That was the sensible course.

I put the paddle to the right of the kayak, pushing to start my U-turn. Suddenly, there was a shimmer on the water. I stopped in place. I heard a deep rumble. I checked the sky for birds or another apparition, but I was way off. Maybe three cables away from my kayak, a huge mass suddenly burst out of the water. It was a whale. It seemed to stayed suspended in the air for a second before coming back down into the sea in a big splash. I was in awe. And then a second whale did the same thing. I heard the rumble again. The whale were going in direction of the shape in the distance. I could see their backs peeking out of the water. The agitation of their jumps had died before reaching my kayak. This had to be a sign. It had happened just when I wanted to turn around.

I paused to consider this. Matthew would definitely consider this as a Sign, capital S and all. Was I starting to sound completely like him? I was doing my mantra twice a day, I was pretty sure I was not losing my grip on my identity and who I was on Earth. But could the House influence me in other ways? Could my beliefs and my relation to the House shift under its influence? It had changed because I had came here, because I had explored it, with Matthew and on my own. But was there some more subtle influences at work? And had I any mean to detect it on my own?

This was getting philosophical. The more practical question was should I go on with my trip, and were these whale sightings an omen, an encouragement from the House, or just a nice coincidence and an incredible spectacle? Sometimes a whale is just a whale. I was losing daytime, philosophizing around like that. I decided that the whales were actually *not* a Sign. But they were an example of what this trip promised me in term of literal out-of-Earth moments. I would go forward.

I paddled again during three hours, before calling it a day. I dropped the drift anchor. I was still a bit uneasy about camping in open waters, but it was too late now anyway. I carefully moved from the kayak to the zodiac, and got what I needed for a meal. I stretched my arms. It had been a very long day of paddling. I'll probably have muscle soreness tomorrow. I sat on the side of the zodiac for my meal. Camping at sea was less than ideal. I had to move my main bag in the kayak so that I'll have enough room in the zodiac to lie down in my sleeping bag. There was no way I would be able to setup my tent properly, so I had to hope no water would get into the boat and soak my sleeping bag. I kept an eye on the anchor while eating. The line wasn't tensed. That was good, it meant there was no obvious current or wind to pick the boat up. I should be relatively safe during the night.

Despite my self-reassurances, I slept an uneasy night, and woke up very early. There was a thin moon veiled by nocturnal clouds that gave very little light, and it was still dark all around. It would have been pointless to start paddling before I could try and check if I had drifted and how much. So I stayed there, listening to the low roar of the waves all around me. It made me feel very little but still the sound was soothing, it reminded me of these trips with my uncle when I was young. I laid there for the better part of an hour, before some change in the sky's shade signalled that dawn was here at last. I sat down, stretched my arms around. My muscles were sore all right, but it was tolerable. No water had gotten into the boat during the night and my sleeping bag had stayed dry. All in all, it had turned out as okay as could be. The sky was lighting up quickly now. I rolled and packed the sleeping bag, and maneuvered to get back into the kayak. The shape was slightly bigger than yesterday, and my compass confirmed that it was I the same direction. I had drifted very little, and in the right direction. It was time to start paddling again.

I had been paddling for fifteen minutes when the sun rose. Its light and the clarity of the morning air finally allowed me to see what the shape was. It was a gigantic Statue of an Arm, reaching out of the waters, its Palm stretched toward the skies.


	8. Chapter 8

I could now see clearly the Statue of an Arm, but it took me a whole day of paddling before I actually reached it. I had had the better view of it at midday. I was far enough that I could easily see all of it in one look, but close enough that I could see the details. It was an human arm. The hand was stretched, as if ready to catch something or as if it had been carrying something now disappeared. As for any Statues in the House, I could see no construction lines, as if it had been cut from one massive bloc of stone.

I had hoped that there would be some way to enter the Statue. I had imagined some staircase spiralling inside the arm, leading from a small dock just the size of my kayak to the middle of the palm, where I would have had a view on the structure of the House from above, leading to a profound revelation about its meaning or its origin.

But now I was by the side of the Statue, and I could see plainly that there was no wharf and no conveniently placed door. I had turned around the Arm three times, and it was solid stone on all sides, adorned with kelp and barnacles showing the ebb and flow of the tides. If there was a door, it was well below water; but more probably it only existed in my imagination. The Statue of an Arm had seemed pristine from afar. But from here I could see than in addition to the algae and molluscs, the unrelenting movement of the ocean had taken its toll on the stone. Cracks ran through it, crevices and canals dug by the briny water. It seemed brittle in places, and I wondered how long it would still stand, and when would be the day when the gigantic landmark (or should I say Housemark?) would lay at the bottom of the Ocean. Had there been other gigantic Statues here, fallen long before my time?

I found a way to wedge a rope in one of the cracks in the base of the Statue, allowing me to anchor my boat for the night. I considered my situation. This Statue was impressive, but it was still just a Statue, I couldn't exactly assign it a profound meaning or claim that it had laid me to a Revelation about the House. So I might as well drop the "Is this an Omen?" considerations altogether. I had spent five days at sea so far. According to my initial plans I could spend two more going forward before heading back to familiar shores, with quite a reasonable safety margin in terms of food. But so far my cruise had been without the slightest incident, so I could add a day going forward.

I checked that my bags were in order, and I recited my mantra in front of the setting sun. I checked it against the written version. Oh. I had totally forgotten the last sentence. "I enjoy progressive rock and baroque concertos." Had I really written that? What did it even mean? I repeated the sentence several times, prodding the sounds with my mind like I would explore the place of a missing teeth with my tongue. Suddenly, the words coalesced into meaning. Progressive rock. Of course. Music. How did I forget about music? Ok, so maybe there had been incidents during this cruise. But it proved the protocol I had in place worked. My written identity recap was efficient. Still, I had to mention this in my notebook. I wrote about the day, about the Statue, and about my forgetting about progressive rock. I flipped the notebook to the previous days. "Oh" again. I had mention the same thing the two previous days. But well, it was stable. Only forgetting about music each time, and remembering it while checking my written resume. But I better not forget about the resume itself. Well. This was something I had planned for. I rummaged in my bag and got a Sharpie pen out. I wrote "RESUME" on my left arm. I also wrote in on the kayak in front of me. There was some place left, so I wrote "Sarah Raphael" as well. That was as much additional precautions as I could put in place. And I would only go forward for two days and a half, not three. Well, that was about it. I checked my tethering rope one last time, and called it a day. Knowing that I was anchored, I slept much more soundly than the previous night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is now the longest work I have written in English.
> 
> Added some minor points to previous chapters - mentioned earlier during Sarah's preparations for the trip the bit about her liking progressive rock, and mentioned the notebook writing during her first day at sea, so it doesn't appear out of the blue in this chapter. 
> 
> I'll probably reformat it when it is complete, combining several chapters into one so it's less snippety. As of now it's easier to write that way for me, but it's not my preferred format for reading, so sorry for the potential inconvenience.


	9. Chapter 9

I thought it would take me more than a day to cross from the Statue of an Arm back to the Wall and then see some new Halls, but things didn't happen this way. After a few hours of paddling from the Statue, I realized I could see land ahead. And indeed, I arrived there early in the afternoon. I was on some sort of rocky beach, made of pieces of marble torn from Walls and Statues by the sea. Most of them had been polished into shapelessness, but you could see fragments of body parts and etchings of some Walls ornaments here and there. This part of the House seemed to have been destroyed thoroughly in some distant past, leaving this colorless coast in its place.

The beach was slowly rising above sea-level, and I could see the top of a still standing Wall in the distance. I hauled my boats up on the beach and tethered them to a huge rode of marble jutting from the ground. I shouldered my bag and started hiking up. It was an uneasy walk on the uneven floor. I turned around. I could see the Statue of an Arm easily from the beach, and my boats were clearly visible, the only splash of color on the beach. Finding my way back shouldn't present any problem. I resumed my hike. One hour later, I reached a Door in the Wall. I went through it. I was in a Hall, but a destroyed one. There was no Ceiling, the Walls had been rained upon for ages and were completely eroded, and instead of a proper Floor, the ground was more of the same scree. There were no Statues, and no carvings on the Walls. But on the other side of the Hall there was a Door, so I started walking to it. The next Hall was the same. It looked as if all this Halls had been underwater a long time ago. I carried on. After a few more Halls, the damages started to lessen. The Walls were complete, and there was even traces of beams supporting a now long gone ceiling. There were deeply eroded but still faintly visible carvings on said Walls. In the corner of the Halls, there was some pieces of unbroken Floor, free of rubble. There was water falling down from the beams and on the Walls, pooling in the rubble on the Floor. The pools looked clear and free of any algae, but I was wary of stagnant water anyway. I filled my camelback from one stream falling from a beam, hoping it wasn't carrying too much marble dust.

Some more Halls. The sun was starting to set, but the House around me was in much better shape. There were holes in the Ceiling, but it was there. Obviously I was on the top Floor of the House. The ground was mostly free of rubble, with only a few tiles, some splintered beams, and erratic blocks of stone. And there were Statues again.

The Statues were far more sparse here than in the part of the House I was coming from, no more than five or six Statues in each Hall. It was the same sculpting style than the one I was used to, not the strange abstract style I had seen in the platforms Hall. But the subjects were different. There had been a variety of scenes portrayed in the Halls I used to walk; the Statues had depicted humans, animals, single persons or groups, mythical creatures, engaged in a wide array of activities, but the scene always seemed to take place in some abstract and idyllic countryhood. The Statues here were depicting industrial or urban scene. The first one I saw that was intact enough for me to be able to identify it was the Statue of Two Women Shoveling Coal into a Furnace. The furnace itself was only suggested in the Stone, a massive block with a small open door. But the movement of the women was unmistakable, and the pile of coal depicted neatly even if in the same pale marble as the rest of the Statue. The next one was the Statue of a Faun Loosening a Bolt With a Wrench. The creature was caught mid-effort, its face contorted by the force it was exerting on the uncooperating bolt. The next one was the Statue of Two Centaurs Waiting For The Bus. The bus shelter was perfectly rendered, with a small map etched in the thin pane of marble figuring the glass. The bus routes were unfamiliar, it wasn't a map of London, and no writings had been engraved that could have gave me some indication. I paused to admire this Statue for some time. The marble pane figuring the back of the shelter was so thin that the light was coming through, making it so that the two marbles centaurs seemed to be bathed by the light of some advertising display.

I kept moving one through the Halls. The Halls and the Statues were back to proportions akin to those of my Halls. The Statues were bigger than a human by two or three times, but nothing like what I had seen in the oceanic Halls. They all presented industrial scenes but after the first Hall there was a majority of human subjects, with only a few mythical creatures thrown in from time to time. When the light started to go low, I looked for a place to set camp. I decided to put down my bag behind a Statue of a Magpie Holding a wristwatch in its Beak. I unfolded my tent with enthusiasm. There was some joy to be found in not sleeping under open sky and on an unsteady boat anymore. Every part of setting up camp was easier to do on the land, with no complicated maneuver from one boat to the other. I heated up my meal, recited my resume and checked it against its written form. I had forgotten the last sentence, about music. I repeated it to myself until it was familiar again. I wrote about this omission in my notebook. The night was calm in the House, without the sound of the ocean all around me. I felt protected by these old Walls and I felt asleep very quickly. 


	10. Chapter 10

I woke up early, determined to make the most of the day and half I had left before starting to walk back. I ate a quick breakfast and packed up my camp. I walked ahead, and soon I was in pristine Halls, with an unbroken roof and intact floors. It was hard to pinpoint the style of the architecture in these Halls. The Halls near the Minotaurs Room were a patchwork of architecture, but you could easily say "this lintel is Gothic", "these archs are neoclassical", and so on and so forth. None of that here. The patchwork feel remained, but it seemed the pieces had been picked from a place were architecture had followed a different evolution. From time to time an element looked familiar, but it seemed accidental, like there had been some random convergence of structure.

The structure of the House itself changed slightly. I hadn't realized it before, but since I had left my shore, I had only seen Halls (and the gigantic courtyard harbouring the Statue of an Arm). No more Rooms like there had been in Matthew's Hall. When I was at sea, I had assumed it was because they were submerged and inaccessible. But I hadn't seen Rooms since I was back on solid ground either. That is, until now. It had begun with nooks on the side of Halls, that had seemed to deepen with every new Hall, as if the process of Room creation was organic, slowly maturing stone cavities blooming into fully formed Rooms.

So, Rooms. They had an intimacy that Halls lacked. You could imagine claiming one of them for yourself, a small space for you to call home, to inhabit, to redecorate as you saw fit. Some of them had Windows, rarely there was a Statue, all by itself in the centre. Statue of a Man Tugging on a Chain, Statue of Two Children Repairing a Bike, Statue of a Cat Sleeping on a Stove.

In one Hall I found a small rivulet of water pouring from the Ceiling and down one Wall, before disappearing into a small crack between the Wall and the Floor. It was the only damage to the structure of the House I saw during the whole day. I used it to refill my camelbag.

Time was going by quickly. Checking the Rooms meant I had to spend so much more time to explore a Hall. By mid-afternoon I came by a flight of Stairs going down. I had to choose. Keeping on exploring this floor, or the one below? I knew it was impossible to see it all anyway, but it was still heart-wrenching to willingly leave one part unexplored. After some agonizing hesitation, I chose do go down. I marked the bottom of the Stairs with one of my spraycan, for an easy trip back. Not that it was so necessary, the Hall I arrived in had only one Door leading out.

This Lower Hall was darker than the one above. The Windows were sparser, and the dim light shrouded the Hall in a solemn atmosphere. The Statues seemed slightly bigger, and in a way more detailed, or more finely crafted, it was hard to pinpoint. There were two adjacent rooms. One contained the Statue of a Girl Dialing a Phone Number. The phone she used was an old model, some sort of bakelite phone with a rotary dial. Still it was the most modern object I had seen depicted in a Statue so far. The girl was nevertheless dressed in a sort of toga that could have been from the Roman Empire. There was also a trompe-l'œil window on the back of the room, whose panels were composed of a mosaic made entirely of white tiles. It was the first time I saw a mosaic in the House, but it seemed to be a feature of these Halls, for the second room contained one as well, covering an entire wall, completely white again. Had there been colors in the past that had faded away, or had they always been white? The Statues were white as well, but they represented something. That wasn't the case of white mosaics, except if they were meant to depict a snowy day.

The next Hall had a few Statues as well, all depicting people using various means of communication from different time periods. There were no Rooms in this Hall, but a large white mosaic on the middle of the Floor. The white tiles seemed to form evanescent patterns, like swirling clouds or currents in a pool of water, but none of it easily interpretable; and if you stared for too long, the patterns dissolved back into randomness.

I had lost myself in the contemplation of the mosaic and it was really getting late. I hurried into the next Hall. Its architecture was very sober, and it contained only one Statue, slightly off-center. Statue of a Naiad Operating a Punch Card Computer. There was an empty nest on the ground by the side of the Statue. It was the first sign of life I saw since I had arrived on these shores. It wouldn't have been reasonable to keep on walking tonight. I put my bag down by the side of the Statue, and started my camp for the night. As water boiled for my evening meal, I turned on my headlight to look at the Statue some more. The Naiad was feeding a marble punch card to the computer with her left hand. Her right hand held some more card. The punches had been represented in the marble. Would have it been possible to decode what the cards said? I took some pictures of them just in case. I move around the Statue. The Computer was bulky, like something from the 50's in my universe. On the side opposed to the Naiad, there were two small screen sculpted on the side of the machine, and the screen themselves were white mosaics.

I came back to my tent. On the camping stove, the water was boiling. I opened a bag of instant soup and poured it in. I stirred it while looking at the Naiad. Tomorrow I'll have to start going back. I would left my camp here for the morning, so that I could explore ahead a bit without having to carry the bag. Back here in the beginning of the afternoon, and I would head back to my boat. I ate some dried apricots and recited my resume. Sarah Raphael, etc...


	11. Chapter 11

Ok, last day. I woke up early. Ate quickly and packed up. I left everything here, took only some cereal bars, my journal, my camera and 1L of water. I could cover more ground that way.

I passed some non-descript Halls. There was some adjacent rooms, but they were empty of Statues, with just white Mosaics on their back walls. Another Hall, with Statues this time. Statue of a Secretary Taking a Call, and Statue of a Gorgon Repairing a Pocket Watch. The small dented wheels inside the watch were rendered in marble. Another Hall, with Windows overlooking a Courtyard. The other windows I had passed since I was in this part of the House were overlooking Roofs, as if this Floor I was in was somehow less dense than the one below, smalls part of the House that had grown higher than the rest of it, like bubbles of baking powder in a cake. But here I was over a narrow Courtyard, I could see some grey cobblestones down the desolate place. I was on a Fourth Floor. I took a picture through the Window, hoping that something other than reflection of the Hall in the glass would be visible on it.

I had met no Staircase going down from this Floor so far. Actually the only Staircase I had met in this part of the House was the one that had allowed me to came from this Fourth Floor from the Fifth. The geometry of the House here was different from what it was in Matthew's usual Halls. There was much more frequent Staircases, all of them spanning the three Levels composing the House there. Why this difference in geometry? Like most House-related facts, there was no way of knowing. The House simply was as such. I checked my watch. I still had a good part of the morning, but I'd better keep going.

The next Hall was wonderful. One of his sides was entirely covered by an enormous Statue of a Library. Rows upon row of marble books, with a marble ladder allowing access to the upper shelves. Near the ladder there was a marble armchair with a small marble girl curled in it, reading intently a marble book. A drawing had been etched on the marble page, representing the facade of a small house. I felt some uneasiness contemplating the drawing. It was the first time I saw something that could be construed as a reference to the House inside itself. Then again, that could just be a coincidence. There was no other Statues in this Hall, nor Rooms. I moved on to the next one. A Hall without distinctive features. A Hall with a Statue of A Deer with Antlers Caught in a Fence Link. A Hall with a dozen of small white Mosaics. A Hall with three Rooms, each hosting a Statue of a Man Operating a Valve, the valve on a different position on each Statue.

And then. A Hall that wouldn't have been worthy of attention, except there was a large black arrow drawn on the Wall, pointing one of the two Rooms it hosted. I approached it. The arrow seemed to have been drawn in lampblack a long time ago. I entered the Room. Inside, seven Statues of Centaurs were forming a circle. Was it possible that...

I inspected the space between each Statue. Between the fourth and the fifth, the air seemed to shimmer. I heard distances voices, speaking in an unknown language. I backed up quickly. I got out of the Centaurs Room. There was no doubt that this was a Room similar to the Minotaurs Room. And the lampblack indicated it had been used. I checked the time. I could still afford some exploration. I went back carefully in the Centaurs Room. Behind one of the Statues, there was a scroll of paper. I unrolled it slowly. Glyphs. Utterly incomprehensible. The paper was brittle, like it had been here for a long time. I approached the passage again. No. It was tempting, but I wouldn't. I had no idea what was on the other side, nor if the mantra I used to cross from my world would work in this one. I took pictures of the room. I photographed the scroll as well. I photographed the lampblack arrow. I observed the Hall I was in. There were pieces of wood on the Floor. In one corner, a discoloured rag. Some more lampblack on the Statue of A Young Man Observing Ants. And some lampblack above the Door I had came through, forming undecipherable glyphs.

I still had some time. I could explore the next Hall. But I wasn't comfortable at all letting the Centaurs Room between my camp and me. All signs seemed to show that it hadn't been used since ages, but still. It was a Passage, it was open, someone could come through. As long as I had had the feeling that was alone in the House, I had been perfectly fine. But now, I suddenly felt at risk. I peeked into the next Hall, looking over my shoulder for the Centaurs Room. It was yet one more Hall, with a Staircase going down in the middle and another Door leading to another Hall on the other Side. The House seemed infinite, exploring one more Hall wouldn't make a difference. I turned back retraced my steps, in a hurry. I felt somehow unsafe. I was soon at my camp. Everything was untouched, obviously. I donned my backpack and starting going back to the boat. I scolded myself for losing my peace of mind over some lampblack decades old, but it didn't help. I walked quickly. Soon I was back at the staircase going up. I wished I had a way to erase the spraycan marks I had left, so that my passage through these Halls would remain unnoticed. But there was nothing I could do about it. I hauled my bag Stair after Stair. I felt a little more at ease on the upper Floor. There was more light coming in through the Windows here, and having the Staircase between me and the Centaurs Room helped mitigate my inarticulate fears. Still, I walked on, retracing my steps through these foreign Halls. I saw the Rooms on the side of the Halls become smaller and smaller.

I went into harbouring the Statue of a Cat Sleeping on a Stove. It gave off a peacefulness I dearly missed at the moment. I put my back down against the Wall of the Room, and took some time to drink in the Statue. I had noticed some faded lampblack marks in the Halls nearing the top of the Staircase, but nothing for a moment. My fear slowly subsided as I was contemplating the Statue. These Halls had been explored in the distant past. That was all there was to it. And even if I met a fellow traveller, there was no reason to think they would be hostile. I had grown accustomed to the House being Matthew's and mine only, and being jostled out of this misconception had been startling. But intellectually I knew there had been other people visiting the House. Ritter. Arne-Sayles. THE OTHER. And even if I had never met him here, it was probable that Arne-Sayles was still coming here nowadays. I wondered if he had ever been this far in the House. I doubted it. Thorough exploration on foot was quite far from the kind of flashy displays he liked. But he would be delighted to have it done for him and be able to exploit the knowledge. Ritter might have, but I doubted he had the means to cross the Ocean, and that Arne-Sayles would have given him such a long leash. No, coming from the Minotaurs Room I was probably the very first to set foot here. Were was the Centaurs Room leading to? Another world? Another time in mine? Or my present but through means of passage discovered independently from the Arne-Sayles experiment? The question was alluring, but I wouldn't be the one to answer it. I drank from my bottle, picked up my bag and resumed my walk home. Soon the Rooms had completely disappeared. I set camp in the same place that on my forward trip, behind the Statue of the Magpie Holding a Wristwatch in its Beak. I had covered in one day what I had done in two the other way around.

I woke up later that I would have wished, but well rested. I marched on. The state of the House deteriorated quickly. Holes in the Roof, rubble everywhere, Walls starting to crumble. Soon I was back at the Statue of a Faun Loosening a Bolt With a Wrench, and then it was Statues too damaged to be recognizable. The Roof soon was gone, and the ground uneven. I reached the last standing Wall, and there I was, overlooking the beach from atop. The boats were visible, still attached where I had left them. I walked down to them. There were two birds in them, two white seagulls that had started to build a nest. They cawed as I approached, and puffed themselves, trying to drive me away.

"I'm sorry but these are my boats. I need them to get back to my Halls." One of the seagulls left. The other tried a bit longer to stand up to me. They even tried to pinch my leg, but I shooed it away. Both seagulls perched themselves on a piece of marble protruding from the beach not to far away. They cawed angrily. I looked into the kayak. They were a few splinters from old beams and some small soft feathers, a clumsy attempt at building a nest with the few materials at hand. And in the middle of this precarious assemblage, three eggs.

It took me almost an hour to get the whole nest out of the kayak without touching the eggs and without risking them to fall. All the time the seagulls cawed furiously, as if I was killing their children in front of them. I felt some relief when I was finally able to took my boats away from the nest and the cries of the two stupid parents. I got into the kayak and gave a few paddle strokes before turning around. The seagulls had left their perch and returned to the nest. All well that ends well, I guess. I turned back to the Statue of an arm and started paddling again.


	12. Chapter 12

I had embarked late. The beach was quickly shrinking behind me, but the sun was already low in the sky. I was tired from my long walk, but I would have to keep on so I could reach the Statue of an Arm and anchor my boat on it. I kept on paddling has the sun set. I looked absently to my kayak. There were faded inscriptions on it. "Sarah Raphael" and "resume". "Sarah Raphael". The sound of it was familiar. I repeated if several times. Definitely familiar. Important, too. And what was there to resume? A mystery I would have to solve later. I concentrated on my paddling. It was almost 11pm when I finally reached the Statue. My arms were spent. I lodged a rope in a crack in the Stone and cooked a quick meal. I slipped in my sleeping bag and felt asleep instantly.

I woke up late in the morning. My arms were aching dully. The part of the trip I had spent on solid ground were definitely nicer than the ones on the Ocean. The House was hospitable, the Ocean wasn't. I knew from experience it would take me more than a day to cross from here to the first Door leading back to my Halls, so I wasn't pressed by time. I packed slowly and spent some time stretching my arms. Today would be a slow day. I checked my compass regularly, making sure I was keeping a course as eastern as possible. I was wary of missing the Door leading back to my Halls. Surely there were other ways to reach them, but I had seen enough alien Halls and longed for the familiar shapes of the few First Halls. As I was, paddling, my mind went back to the mystery of the faded words written on my boat. There was something to be resumed. And there was that familiar name. Who was Sarah Raphael? Someone that had passed through the House? Was this her boat? There definitely was something about that name. I had it on the tip of my tongue. Sarah. Raphael. Was it a deformation? The middle syllable was repeated. "Saint Raphael" maybe? Was there a Statue of an Archangel with a flaming sword somewhere around? Was there Sauroctone Statues in some faraway part of the House, getting ready to slay down marble dragons? But, where would a kayak fit into this picture?

  
I took a break from the paddling to stretch my arms. Great white clouds were rolling over the House, going in the same direction as I. On the west, far beyond the Statue of an Arm, some darker clouds where gathering. I had to keep an eye on them, but they wouldn't be a problem in the near future. For now, the Ocean was calm. I scanned my surroundings. No whales this time. I seemed to be the only living creature as fare as the eye could see. I paddled on.

  
I felt I was going in the wrong direction with my "Saint-Raphael" theory. Back to "Sarah Raphael", then. The sixteenth person. Wait. Why sixteenth? Were was that coming from? Sarah Raphael definitely was a person, then. Not a Statue, not a place. A person. But why sixteenth? Sarah Raphael the Sixteenth. Was she royalty? Queen from a faraway realm, reigning benignly over her people, alongside her brothers and sister? No. The Sixteenth wasn't a title. Someone had named her so, before they knew the name they went by. Piranesi had named her so. Before he met her and showed her the House, before she brought him back to...

  
My perception of the world suddenly reversed, like a shirt suddenly inside-out. I was Sarah Raphael. I was not going back to my Halls, but to the portal to Earth. I had saved Matthew Rose-Sorensen from his exile in the House. this was my kayak. And I had to read my resume over and over to hold to my identity. And I hadn't done so. I stopped paddling. I was overcome by violent shivers, unstoppable. I kept repeating "I am Sarah Raphael, I am Sarah Raphael", by fear that the knowledge would elude me again. Finally, the shivers subsized. I turned around and reached in my bag. I retrieved the resume and started reading it out loud. Each pass cemented my knowledge of myself a little further. When I felt comfortable enough, I summoned in my mind the alternate identity I had unknowingly started to assume. It hadn't gone very far, it was still a fragile mental state, but I could see how it worked, how my mind could work with the assumption that the House was all there was, how I could become someone else, a Child of the House as Piranesi was. It was like adjusting the polarization on glasses. This way I was Sarah Raphael, that way I was a Child of the House. I could hold both mental states at once but it was hard, for they were mutually exclusive. I focused on being Sarah Raphael. I had a portal to go back to. I put the resume back in my bag, and took out the sharpie. I rewrote "Sarah Raphael" on the kayak. The ink had faded so fast. It was hard not to see it as an act from the House, trying to make me forget the Earth. But that was silly. It was probably only some chemical reaction between the ink, the plastic of the kayak and the oceanic air. Still. I'd better hurry going back to the Minotaurs Room. I paddled until late in the day. I camped in the boat, counting on the drift anchor to keep me more or less on the same place. I read compulsively my resume before falling asleep.

I started the next day by reading the resume again. I had resolved to read it three times a day. I didn't want to take any chance. I reached the Wall soon after noon. I had a brief moment of panic when I discovered the stars I had painted were visible nowhere. Would I find the way back to the Minotaurs Room? This journey was turning out to be much more risky that I had thought. So much for some quiet holiday time. I focused on my breathing and calmed myself. Obviously I hadn't followed a perfect straight line across this Courtyard. I would have to look around and find the Door from which I came. I took out the spraycan and painted a spiral on the Wall. So I would know where I had started from if I had to retrace my steps. Then I took a page from my notebook and tore it into pieces. I threw them on the Ocean. They started to drift north lazily. So I would go South. I started paddling.

  
I took me one hour of paddling to find back my Door. The stars had faded, from their original neon pink to a much duller shade, but where still clearly visible. I crossed the door and found myself in calmer waters. I paddled across three Halls before I arrived in one ornate enough that there where places to tie my boat on, and spaces where I could climb to. I took my lunch on a Cornice, delighted to get some respite from sitting in my kayak. I ate lightly, and went obsessively over my resume. I considered taking the rest of the day off, but I was eager to get back to Earth. So I went back to my kayak and resumed my journey.

The days coming back to the Halls around the Minotaurs Room went by. I was scrupulous in my routine of reciting my identity to myself, and I felt like it was firmly anchored to me. I crossed the Platforms Hall, still covered in to many birds. I passed the head of the Boy With Horns, the Monk Copying a Book. I went back through the Halls with ocean-themed Statues. I got one day of rain, a fine drizzle in the morning, but a more serious affair in the afternoon. I had paddled through the drizzle, but around 1pm I decided to take shelter on a Cornice overlooked by the remnant of a Ceiling. I set my clothes to dry as much as I could, and lost myself in the contemplation of the Statue in front of me, Woman Pouring Water From a Jug. The rain died in the evening and the night was clear. I was accompanied by two puffins flying leisurely alongside my boat on the last day before I reached the Hall with the broken Floor.

Some sort of inner peace came over me as my journey was nearing its end. It had been risky, but I had made it. I was back on familiar grounds. I had seen new parts of the House, with gigantic Statues, blank mosaics, depiction of technology. I had briefly lost my identity before finding it back again. I understood Matthew better, I understood the House better. I understood myself better as well, in a way. The House was a dangerous place in some way, but its quiet, its open spaces, its alienness where something I craved. I could have found the same things hiking in Earth mountains, but the House was closer. I probably wouldn't go back on the Ocean for long - it was tiresome and dangerous, much more so than walking around. But I would come back to explore the House much more regularly. Maybe find a way to bring on a bike, even if I had to take it apart and reassemble it.

I sat in the Hall in front of the Minotaurs Room. The boats were stored, the supplies packed away in the usual caches. I enjoyed my last moments in the House before crossing back. My notebook and my camera were in my hand, testimonies of my journey that I wanted to share with Matthew, wherever he might be. I stood up, when to the Room. That had been a great journey. I should start planning the next one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it!
> 
> I rushed a bit the ending so I could get the whole thing out for Yuletide.  
> I considered having Sarah shipwrecking and losing her identity sheet, but I had no idea how she would get out of it, so I gave her a peaceful journey. Not much action but I hope you liked the story anyway!


End file.
